


Making Windows Where There Were Once Walls

by Cello_trash



Series: Making Windows Where There Were Once Walls + some oneshots [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Era, Canon-Typical Violence, Crack, Emotionally Constipated Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Eventual Romance, Fluff, Getting Together, Happy Ending, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, M/M, Magic Revealed, Merlin's Magic Revealed (Merlin), Miscommunication, My First Fanfic, Protective Gwaine (Merlin), Whump, arthur gets sense beat into him eventually, boys being dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:42:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24063049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cello_trash/pseuds/Cello_trash
Summary: When Merlin entered his chambers, Arthur was already awake, and ordered Merlin to prepare two horses for a hunting trip.“Is it too much to hope that you’ll be taking Leon or Lancelot,” Merlin had asked, his voice laced with fake sweetness.“Stop being lazy, Merlin. It is an honor to be invited on a hunting trip with the king,” Arthur replied haughtily.“An invitation implies there being a choice, sire.”Or, yet another magic reveal fic with lots of angst, but also a fluffy happy ending with Merthur romance, because apparently I think there can never be enough of them lol
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Making Windows Where There Were Once Walls + some oneshots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1744669
Comments: 75
Kudos: 471





	1. The Hunting Trip

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all, this is my first fic ever so please be nice! Merlin was the first fandom I was ever in so I decided to finally write some fic of my own. I love having my characters go through some angst before they get their happy ending, so I thought what better than a magic reveal fic. I'm not entirely sure how long this is going to be, but I'll tentatively say 3 chapters. I hope you enjoy! Oh, also Lancelot/all of the knights are alive, and assume any canon inconsistencies are purposeful lol ;)
> 
> All mistakes are my own

When Arthur set out on a hunting trip alone with Merlin that early spring day, he was expecting a couple days of freedom and fun with his friend (though he’d never admit they were friends to Merlin’s face). Instead, Arthur returned to Camelot feeling like his world had shattered. Since his father’s death, Arthur has felt like he couldn’t breathe. Even though he had been raised to be a king from birth, having to rule Camelot and mourn his father’s death simultaneously had exhausted him more than any tournament or hunting trip ever had.

He and his father had not agreed on a lot of things, but he had still lost his one remaining close family member. First his mom, then Morgana’s betrayal, and finally Uther. He had Agravaine he supposed, but it wasn’t the same. So, when Merlin had entered his chambers last week, Arthur was already awake, and had ordered Merlin to prepare two horses for a hunting trip.

“Is it too much to hope that you’ll be taking Leon or Lancelot,” Merlin had asked, his voice laced with fake sweetness.

“Stop being lazy, _Mer_ lin. It is an honor to be invited on a hunting trip with the king,” Arthur replied haughtily.

“An invitation implies there being a choice, _sire_.”

“Oh, shut up you idiot and do as you’re told,” Arthur snapped, but the warmth in his voice, and the grin he sent Merlin’s way, softened the command. Even though they had never stopped insulting each other, it was now a game the two of them liked to play, no real malicious intent behind their banter. In fact, Arthur found that he was spending more and more time trying to get Merlin to smile and do his cute laugh. Arthur shook his head to clear his mind; he didn’t like to dwell on the way that Merlin made him feel warm inside. And Merlin was definitely not cute! Bumbling, clueless, and clumsy, certainly, but never cute.

Within the hour both Merlin and Arthur were down by the stables readying to leave as they checked and double checked that the saddles were properly fastened and the proper supplies packed. Arthur bundled his unstrung hunting bow in his sleeping gear, tied it down to the back of his saddle, and swung up onto his steed. Merlin followed suit on his own horse, and soon the two of them were riding out towards to woods.

As soon as they reached the edge of the forest, Merlin started to talk as loudly as possible. “You know Arthur, I have other duties to attend to then following you around while you gallivant around, killing animals. I could be cleaning your armor or helping Gaius. I am still his apprentice. And you know that I don’t like seeing animals be killed, they haven’t done anything to-”

“You’re talking so loud that your scaring off all the game,” Arthur interrupted, finally getting fed up with Merlin’s prattling.

“Imagine that,” Merlin hummed, trying to look innocent, “I hadn’t even noticed that I was talking loudly.” Nevertheless, he didn’t stop rambling loudly for the rest of the day.

Later, after Merlin had managed to scare off every animal Arthur had come close to catching, the two of them sat around a fire Merlin had built.

“Great,” Arthur grumbled. “Due to your incompetence we have nothing to eat.”

“Funny that you say that,” Merlin laughed smugly. “I happened to pack rations in case your hunting prowess was lacking. Between the winter and being crowned king, you’ve grown slower. I’m sure even Gaius in his old age could have caught some game by now.” His eyes shined with mirth as he grinned at Arthur.

“Why you insolent little… I ought to put you in the stocks when we return,” Arthur growled as he launched himself at Merlin. The two of them rolled around on the forest floor laughing as they both tried to win their playful skirmish.

Even though Merlin was small and lithe, he couldn’t use his magic this close to Arthur and hope to get away with it, so he was soon pinned down by Arthur, who grinned down at him as they both tried to catch their breath.

Expecting Arthur to let him up now that he had won, Merlin tried to push himself up, but Arthur kept him firmly in place.

Merlin looked up at him in surprise, only to realize that Arthur was staring at his lips.

“Arthur,” Merlin murmured, asking a silent question. Suddenly, the shared joy and laughter between the two evaporated, replaced by an intense nervous energy. However, before either of them could say anything else, a branch cracked loudly in the surrounding brush and the pair heard someone quietly curse.

Jumping up from his position above Merlin, Arthur dove to where his scabbard lay by the fire, unsheathed his sword, and firmly exclaimed, “who goes there!”

When there was no answer Arthur hissed, “Merlin, get behind me. I can’t protect you when you’re all the way over there.”

Merlin rolled his eyes, but he truly appreciated Arthur’s sentiment, even if Merlin could protect himself. He might act like a prat, but over the years Merlin had come to realize how much Arthur cared about the people around him. In fact, since knowing each other, they had both grown as people, and while Merlin had had his doubts in the beginning, he had known for several years now that Arthur was going to be a great ruler.

He was yanked out of his thoughts when suddenly four bandits leaped out of the bushes. Since it was only a short hunting trip, Arthur had foolishly decided to travel lightly, with very little protective gear, but Arthur was one of, if not the best, swordsman in all of Camelot. He could take them on, he thought, but also having to protect defenseless Merlin from harm would make it a lot more difficult. He really did need to insist that Merlin learn to fight with a sword; at least teach him some of the basics.

He steeled himself as the bandits charged, and soon everything was in chaos as he blocked and parried blow after blow. Ducking to avoid getting his head chopped off, he yelled, “Any help you can give would be nice, Merlin!”

Merlin watched carefully as Arthur took down three of the bandits, waiting to see if there was a way to sneakily use magic to help Arthur. He seemed to have it under control until Merlin saw one of the men Arthur had struck down stir. He apparently was not entirely dead, and stumbled to his feet. Arthur had his back to him as he dispatched the last remaining fighter, and Merlin watched as the wounded bandit raised his sword.

“Arthur!” Merlin screamed as his magic reacted instinctively, throwing the bandit across the clearing into a tree. A sick crack echoed throughout the clearing as the bandit’s neck snapped. Merlin breathed a sigh of relief, but upon turning to look at Arthur, froze.

Arthur was looking at him with wide eyes filled with terror, and Merlin knew immediately that Arthur must have seen his eyes glow gold. 

Arthur raised and pointed his sword at Merlin, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not hide the shaking of his hands. “G-get on your knees _traitor_ ,” he spat, the anger audible in his voice.

As Merlin lowered himself to the ground, he pleaded, “Arthur please, I swear that everything I did was for you. I didn’t have a choice. I was born with magic.” He then took a deep breath, trying to keep himself from panicking and crying.

He finally looked Arthur in the eye, and in the steadiest tone he could muster said, “My life is at your mercy Arthur; whatever you decide to do I will not fight, but you need to know that I am not ashamed. I have used magic to save your life dozens of times and have felt the beauty that magic can bring, and so if I had the option, I would choose to be born with magic again. I regret that I was never able to tell you this myself, but I refuse to apologize for having magic itself.”

He and Arthur stared at each other for several minutes, neither moving, before Arthur slowly lowered his sword. Looking relieved, Merlin started to rise, but Arthur quickly put an end to that. “Stay down. I’m still trying to decide what to do with you, and until I’ve figured that out, I’m going to keep you tied up so you can’t hurt me or pull a runner. If you were to run to Morgana, you know too much about Camelot because I made the mistake of trusting a liar,” Arthur commanded with an accusatory glare.

That is how Merlin found himself bound and tied to a tree. At least Arthur had been nice enough to tie his hands in front of his body. However, the rope that secured him to the tree was digging into his stomach uncomfortably, making it hard to sleep once nightfall came. Not to mention that it was quite cold as spring had just begun. Oh, and the fear of burning on the pyre, can’t forget that. No, he barely slept at all.

In the morning, Arthur walked over to him, and judging by the redness of his eyes he hadn’t slept well either. He silently drew his sword, and Merlin closed his eyes and flinched.

“If you’re going to have me killed can you at least give me the curtesy of doing it now,” Merlin whispered. “I don’t want to burn. I don’t want Gaius or Gwen or any of my other friends to have to see me burn.”

“Oh, for fucks sake Merlin I’m not going to kill you,” Arthur said gruffly as he cut both the rope that tied Merlin to the tree and then untied Merlin’s wrists with his hands. Even after the bindings had fallen away, Arthur continued to gently hold Merlin’s wrists, thumbing over the patches of skin rubbed raw from the rope. “You could have told me that they were too tight Merlin and I would have loosened them,” Arthur said, trying to catch Merlin’s gaze.

“I was afraid that if I asked you might tell me that it was on purpose; that you wanted it to hurt. That would have caused me more pain than any rope could.” At that Arthur stood up and fixed Merlin with an icy glare, obviously putting up a wall.

“Get up,” he ordered as he roughly yanked Merlin up by his arm, “and get on your horse we’re going back to Camelot.” At Merlin’s look of surprise and fear, he clarified, “ I may banish you or throw you in jail, I’m still not sure, but until I’ve made a decision you will still serve as my manservant. ‘keep your enemies closer’ and all that.”

Merlin looked hurt, “I am the same man I was yesterday Arthur. I am not your enemy. Just because you know about my magic now-”

Arthur cut him off, snarling, “Do not mention your sorcery. Of that I am certain. If you do, I will not hesitate to punish you. If you wish to stay my manservant, you will not speak about magic.”

The ride back to Camelot was dead silent, a complete reversal of the previous day’s journey. Even the forest seemed unnaturally quiet, as if all the creatures in the woods were mourning with Arthur and Merlin. It was truly as beautiful day, but neither boy could enjoy it, Merlin thought bitterly.

Arthur spent the entire ride thinking about Merlin. He was incredibly hurt. Ever since he had seen Merlin’s eyes glow gold, he felt as if he couldn’t catch his breath. He had thought that they were friends, that he knew Merlin, but that was obviously false. If Merlin had been telling the truth about being born with magic, Arthur hadn’t known about a massive part of Merlin. However, Merlin had had lots of chances to hurt Arthur if he had really wanted to, and he hadn’t. Arthur did not know what to think.

Soon they were back to the castle, and Arthur quickly dismounted, leaving Merlin to tend to the horses without a word.

He didn’t see Merlin again until dinner time, when he heard a timid knock on the door. That couldn’t be Merlin, he always just flounced into Arthur’s chambers without warning, he thought bitterly, as he called out, “enter.” To his utter surprise, it was Merlin, who set down his dinner quietly and then stood back with his head bowed.

Arthur had been wishing that another servant would attend him tonight, as he still could barely look at Merlin without pulling his hair out, and so angrily commanded, “Leave. I do not want you in my presence tonight.”

Merlin’s shoulders dropped, and he shuffled out of the room. When he returned to Gaius’ chambers, the older man immediately knew something was wrong. “What’s the matter Merlin, you weren’t supposed to be back before tomorrow. Is Arthur hurt?” Merlin shook his head before answering, “Arthur found out,” his voice cracking. “He didn’t take it well. He hasn’t decided to kill me, but I’ve completely lost his trust Gaius.”

“I’m sorry my boy,” Gaius responded, looking concerned, but not knowing what to say. “I’m going to retire to my room now, goodnight,” Merlin said flatly, forcing a fake smile.

Once his door was shut, he collapsed on his bed face down, and if his cheeks were wet with tears, nobody could see them. If he was ever able to, it would take a long time to regain Arthur’s trust and Merlin had no idea how to even begin. Eventually, he drifted off to sleep, dreading the following morning when he would have to face Arthur’s look of betrayal and anger once again.


	2. Worried friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur is dumb and trying to run away from his feelings. Merlin's other friends are getting worried. Visiting nobles arrive at Camelot and begin to make even more trouble between Merlin and Arthur.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has read this so far, and big hugs to everyone who left a comment and/or kudo. You give me inspiration to write. I hope to have the next chapter done sometime tomorrow, but don't hold me to that lol. I've changed the number of chapters to 4. That still isn't definite but I don't think I'm going to be able to wrap this up in 3. A bit more angst to go, but we're getting closer to these dumb boys talking to each other and fluff! Enjoy :)

“With the visiting nobles arriving today, I’ll need you on your best behavior,” Arthur blurted out as Merlin dressed him for the day. At the sudden disruption of the awkward silence that had surrounded the two of them for the past week, Merlin startled, visibly flinching even as he tried to hide it from Arthur.

“Yes, sire,” he whispered in response. “If you don’t need me for anything else, I’ll be on my way, Your Highness,” he went on, and left after Arthur waved his hand in an obvious dismissal.

A few years ago, Arthur would have been pleased to hear his manservant respond in such a way, but now it filled him with regret. No! He could not be “regretful.” He was the King. He had trusted Merlin, let him get closer than anyone else, and he had thought Merlin felt the same.

But Merlin had lied to him for years, acting like a loyal manservant, (even if he was objectively abysmal at his job) when in fact he was a sorcerer. How could Arthur have been so stupid to think that he knew his manservant. Trusting other people is what got kings killed, and even though Arthur had thought Merlin was the exception to this rule, he had obviously been mistaken.

However, Arthur would try to understand eventually, he just was not sure how to put aside his hurt yet. In his anger he had lashed out at Merlin and had said some things he didn’t really mean. That is why he had told Merlin not to speak of magic. He had been told his whole life that magic was evil and that was going to be hard to unlearn, even though he knew that Merlin could never truly be evil. Even now, Arthur felt extreme fondness towards Merlin, and silently acknowledged to himself how brave Merlin truly was. Not only had he lived in Camelot, a place where his life was constantly at risk, but he had followed Arthur into conflict after conflict without hesitation.

Arthur just couldn’t deal with it yet. He needed to focus on finalizing the treaty with the noble family arriving today. He would talk to Merlin once they had left and he had time to read the books about magic he had asked Geoffrey to find for him.

Unfortunately, Merlin was not privy to Arthur’s inner musings, and so he thought that Arthur would never accept magic, and therefore never accept him. Due to this, he felt more and more desolate every day. 

Ever since they had returned from the disastrous hunting trip, Arthur had kept him busy constantly. If Merlin had thought that Arthur had been demanding before, it was nothing compared to now. Merlin suspected that the increased workload was Arthur’s way of seeing him as little as possible. If that was his plan, it was working. Practically the only times the two of them interacted were at meal times. Speaking of meal times, with his new schedule Merlin barely had time to eat himself. He used to sneak food off of Arthur’s plate, but he wouldn’t dare do that now. He felt like he was walking on egg shells every time he was around Arthur; he didn’t want to draw his ire anymore then he already had.

Between the increased chores, the lack of food Merlin was eating, and the mental energy of dealing with Arthur’s coldness, Merlin was exhausted. Now that Lord Griffiths and his two sons were visiting for the next month, Merlin would have even more to do. As the King’s personal manservant, he would be expected to also help serve the visiting nobles personally. If it was possible, Merlin felt physically weaker just thinking about it. As he walked briskly to the armory to polish Arthur’s armor, he felt a hand grip his forearm from behind, and he jumped, whipping around to face whoever had grabbed him.

“Whoa Merlin, it’s only me,” Gwen said in a tone not dissimilar to the one she used to calm the horses when they had been spooked. “Are you okay,” she went on, “you haven’t seemed like yourself the past several days…” She smiled at Merlin, hopeful that he would want to talk. However, Merlin just sighed, “I’m just really tired right now don’t worry about me. I’m sorry I can’t stop to talk I really do need to shine all of Arthur’s armor before training today or he’ll be displeased.”

He then shot her what was supposed to be a smile, but was more of a grimace. “See you later at the welcome feast tonight, Gwen,” and rushed off, tripping over his feet in his haste to leave. As he stumbled, he started to feel light-headed, but was able to catch himself before he really fell. If he had looked back, he would have noticed Gwen staring at him worriedly as he turned the corner.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he made it to the armory without running into anyone else. He got started cleaning Arthur’s gear as quickly as possible. He wanted to be done long before any of the other knights arrived. Before all this mess, he used to take as long as he pleased, enjoying Arthur’s annoyance when he would arrive for training and his armor would still be dirty. Arthur would then cuff him on the head and insult him, and then Merlin would call him a clotpole or some such name, and then they would smile at each other before Merlin would start helping Arthur into his armor.

Merlin smiled at the memories, feeling bittersweet. Merlin had stopped trying to lie to himself about his feelings for Arthur a long time ago, and those moments of roughhousing were the only times he was able to show, and receive, any type of physical affection with the King. He knew that he and Arthur could never be together. For one, Arthur was not attracted to men. Merlin had thought that maybe Arthur was thinking about kissing him on the forest floor, but it was probably wishful thinking, and even if Arthur had been, he certainly wouldn’t now that he knew Merlin’s secret. 

He was about halfway through polishing Arthur’s armor when Gwaine walked into the armory and leant against the table Merlin was working at, staring fondly at Merlin’s profile. After a few seconds, Merlin gave up trying to ignore him and turned to face his friend.

“You’re here early,” Merlin stated inquisitively.

“I decided to get some extra practice in so that I can beat the shit out of the princess today,” his smile looked feral. “And don’t try to make excuses for him, I’ve seen how he’s been treating you this past week. I just need to remind him that he isn’t all that by knocking him down a peg,” he said while cracking his knuckles and looking meaningfully at Merlin.

Merlin opened his mouth to try and defend Arthur again, but ended up not saying anything. He knew that Gwaine was going to be hard on Arthur no matter what he said, and if a part of Merlin enjoyed watching Gwaine land hit after hit on Arthur on the training field that day, well, no one was the wiser.

By the time that the feast started, Merlin was definitely feeling light-headed. He still had not gotten a chance to eat that day, and being surrounded by food certainly didn’t help. For what seemed like the one hundredth time that evening, Merlin’s stomach growled and ached with hunger as he longingly stared at the banquet table.

Noticing that Arthur’s goblet was almost empty he walked over to the table with a jug of wine. However, as he began to pour the liquid, a sense of vertigo overcame him, and he spilled a little bit of wine on the table as he tried to right himself.

Lord Griffiths, who was sat right next to Arthur in a position of honor that was often afforded to visiting Lords, laughed scornfully at Merlin before turning to Arthur and saying, “it’s always unfortunate to have clumsy servants, but nothing a slap and a night in the stocks won’t fix, am I right?”

Arthur glared at Merlin, before turning to Griffiths, “You certainly are, it’s been a while since I’ve disciplined this one, maybe it’s time I do.” He called over a guard, gestured at Merlin, and commanded, “take him down to the dungeons, maybe a night in there will help fix his behavior.”

Arthur was still angry at Merlin, but the only reason he sent him to the dungeons was to save face in front of Lord Griffiths. If he looked weak, then the treaty might not go through. He didn’t want Merlin to have to face a public humiliation in the stocks, so the dungeons seemed like a good option. If he had time to visit, he would go see Merlin tonight. Nevertheless, he was sure Merlin understood his reasoning.

Merlin did not understand. As he sat on the cold dungeon floor, his mood swung between anger, disbelief, and self-pity. Even if Arthur was mad at him, he had not thought that he would throw him in the fucking _dungeon_. Stupid prat.

A few hours later, Gwen, Lancelot, and Gwaine visited him. “Is the feast already over?” Merlin inquired.

“It just ended. We came as soon as we were able. You’ll be free to leave in the morning,” Lancelot answered sympathetically.

“I don’t understand why we can’t just break him out of here,” Gwaine grumbled. He went on, “what could you have done to anger Arthur this much, I’ve never seen him be this rude to you?”

“He found out about a secret I have,” Merlin said, looking meaningfully at Lancelot. “All things considered I’m lucky to still have my head,” he commented morosely.

“Well… can you tell us what it is? I can promise you that none of us will be angry,” Gwaine pushed.

“I…I h-have magic,” Merlin whispered tentatively.

Merlin jumped at Gwaine’s loud laugh. “Is that all?” he asked. “I thought all of us were just pretending we didn’t know that. Arthur really is as dumb as he looks. Maybe I should go easier on him in practice, he must have had too many concussions if he hasn’t noticed yet,” he crowed. 

“What!” Merlin exclaimed, eyes wide with shock. “How many people know?” Gwen looked at him sheepishly, “I think just about everyone except Arthur… and, well Uther when he was alive obviously… or else you’d be… well, you know…” They all grimaced at the reminder of the late king.

After a moment of silence, Gwen tried to look cheery and pulled out a basket with some food in it. “We brought you some food from the feast that we scavenged. Don’t think we haven’t noticed that you haven’t been eating very much the past week.” She passed him the food bit by bit through the bars since the basket would not have fit.

Merlin started to scarf the food down before saying, “thank you,” through a mouthful of food, crumbs spraying everywhere. He blushed in embarrassment before all four of them burst out in laughter at the sight.

“Didn’t your mother every teach you manners,” Gwen choked out between fits of laughter.

“Shut up,” Merlin said with fake indignation, before grinning widely. “Thank you, guys. Really, this is the best I’ve felt all week. You all are true friends, and this means a lot to me.”

Gwaine finally sobered up, and said, “We will all try to get Arthur to see sense. As much as the princess can be an arse, it is clear that he feels fondly for you,” he winked.

Lancelot chimed in, “and don’t be afraid to come talk to us, or any of the knights for that matter, if you need too. Your magic is not your only ‘secret’ regarding Arthur that everyone knows about except for him. It must be extra hard to have him treat you poorly because of it.”

Merlin turned red with embarrassment for the second time that evening, understanding what Lancelot was implying. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Arthur is merely a friend. I have never-” he cut himself off when he saw the nonplussed looks on the three faces in front of him.

Gwen reached through the bars, resting her hand on Merlin’s shoulder reassuringly before saying, “It’s okay Merlin, your secret is safe with us. You don’t have to pretend.”

They all sat there in comfortable silence for several minutes contemplating how they were going to convince Arthur that he was in the wrong when it came to magic. Eventually, they gave up for the time being and just spent time together as friends, laughing long into the night and early morning until the three friends finally stood up and left to get some sleep. They would need all the rest they could get to prepare themselves for the task of getting through Arthur’s stubbornness.

Arthur did not visit Merlin that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed this and/or have constructive criticism please leave a comment. They mean the world to me!


	3. Enemies and allies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The visiting nobles are awful. Lots of Merlin whump and Arthur continues to be dumb. The level of miscommunication in this chapter is approaching that of a Shakespearean comedy and/or tragedy (romeo and juliet are q u a k i n g). Gwaine finally gets sick of Arthur, and there's lots of groveling to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, this is a bit later than I wanted, but it's longer than the other chapters so far! There's quite a bit of whump in this chapter but chapter 4 (and 5 if I decide to do 5 chapters) will be pretty much all fluff/ Arthur groveling so that's fun lol.  
> All mistakes are my own. If you see any please let me know and I'll fix it :)

Merlin was awoken abruptly at dawn by the rattling of keys in the lock of his cell door. As he blurrily looked up, he was slightly comforted to see that it was one of the friendlier guards, Garth, who was waiting for him. “Hey, Merlin, you need to get up if you want to bring Arthur his breakfast on time.”

“The dollop-head can wait for his blasted breakfast this morning,” Merlin grumbled, “he’ll be lucky to get breakfast at all after throwing me in here.” If the bastard wasn’t going to have him killed or banished, he could stop acting so childish towards him, Merlin thought crossly as he walked out of the cell.

“Have a nice day Garth,” Merlin said as he passed the man.

“You too, Merlin. Try your best to stay on Arthur’s good side and avoid the visiting nobles as much as possible. I’ve heard they’ve been rough with the rest of the royal staff. Even George looked frazzled when I passed him this morning, and you know how proper he is,” Garth murmured conspiratorially.

“Thanks for the warning, but unfortunately I won’t be able to avoid them, as making sure that all their needs are met are part of the duties of being part of the King’s staff,” Merlin groaned. “With the nobles’ opinion of servants, maybe I’ll see you down here sooner than I would like,” Merlin sarcastically called out as he started walking up the stairs that led out of the dungeon.

Garth laughed, before yelling after him, “In that case, I hope it’s a long time till I see you again, Merlin. Take care.”

As he trudged to the kitchens Merlin was lost in thought. He did still feel guilty about hurting Arthur (he thought he probably would always feel guilty about lying no matter how justified it was), and he was always worried that Arthur would change his mind about the whole banishment thing. Last night was a clear indication that Arthur was not hesitant to punish him, even for small infractions. If Merlin were to bring up magic to Arthur, he shuddered to imagine what his punishment for that would be. Arthur had been explicitly clear about never bringing it up.

That was the worst part of this, Merlin thought. He had always assumed that if Arthur ever found out about his magic, he would at least be able to acknowledge it, even if that acknowledgement were part of his execution or exile. Instead, he still had to hide who he was around Arthur. He had lost Arthur’s loyalty and friendship, and had not even gained the ability to openly be who he was.

He couldn’t risk being separated from Arthur. In addition to the prophecy, he did not want to officially lose his friend ( ~~and crush~~ ). As it stood he could still believe that eventually Arthur would come around, even if that seemed less and less likely with every passing day, but if Arthur decided to banish him he would have to accept that their bond had been broken.

He turned a corner a corner too sharply, and bumped into someone else. He really need to stop thinking this hard while he was walking places, he always managed to bump into someone (in his head he heard Arthur’s sarcastic, “Good, we wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself _Mer_ lin. You know how dangerous thinking can be for you.”).

“Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry-” Merlin began, but froze when he looked up to see one of the Lord’s sons, Abram, scornfully looking at him.

“You better watch where you’re going _boy_ ,” he snarled before slapping Merlin across the cheek. Merlin gasped, shocked as he brought his hand up to his cheek. When he did not respond immediately, Abram raised his hand again as a threat.

“What do you say _boy_ when you’ve been taught a lesson.”

“I-I’m sorry my Lord. I will make sure I am paying attention to where I am going in the future, thank you for teaching me this lesson,” Merlin responded meekly, cringing away from the noble.

“Make sure you do,” Abram spit in disgust, before briskly walking away.

Merlin stood in the middle of the hallway for a minute, too surprised to move. Arthur regularly threw things at him, but he had never been hit like that by any nobility before.

He was brought out of his shock when a kitchen maid ran up to him, “Hurry Merlin, the chef is getting impatient. You’re late bringing the King his breakfast,” she scolded, “stop dallying around and get on your way.” Upon further examination she gasped, “You’re bleeding Merlin, what happened?”

Merlin brought his hand up to his face and felt the warm blood leaking out of the corner of his mouth. He must have been clipped by the ring Lord Abram was wearing. He smiled weakly at her, “Oh, it’s nothing. I just ran into something; you know how clumsy I can be.”

She looked at him disbelievingly, but did not question him. “Well make sure you don’t bump or trip over anything while carrying the King his food, he’s already probably cross with you because of last night, you don’t want to make it worse,” she said slowly while side eyeing him.

Merlin nodded to her, and went to collect Arthur’s breakfast. By the time he reached Arthur’s chambers, he had stopped actively bleeding, but unbeknownst to him, there was still some dried blood at the corner of his mouth.

When he entered, Arthur was already up, staring outside his window, observing the courtyard below. “Took you long enough Merlin. You really are a lost cause as a servant,” Arthur said coldly as he turned around to face Merlin. When he saw Merlin’s face, he looked panicked and concerned for a moment, “What happened to your face Merlin, are you hurt?” He immediately looked shocked; he clearly had not meant to say that out loud.

Merlin opened his mouth, ready to tell the same lie he had told the maidservant earlier, but closed his mouth. He was tired of lying to Arthur. The lying was supposed to end after Arthur knew about his magic; he would tell the truth.

“Lord Abram hit me Arthur,” Merlin said softly, speaking the King’s name out loud for the first time in a week. However, Arthur had already put up his defenses against Merlin again.

“Don’t be such a girl, Merlin. He probably just accidently bumped into you. Stop exaggerating, especially when your embellishments accuse a noble of violence. Now what really happened?” Arthur demanded cruelly.

Merlin stepped back as if he had been physically struck and looked devastated. Arthur did not even seem to care whether he got hit or not. He had stood up for Merlin when it came to rude Nobles and knights before, but clearly those days were long gone now. That hurt more than Merlin could have ever imagined. He had tried to convince himself that he was numb to Arthur’s callousness this past week, but he had obviously been deceiving himself. “I’m sorry, Sire, you’re right. I was not looking where I was going, and when I collided with the Lord, I was bumped face first into the corner of the wall.” So much for not lying anymore, Merlin thought bitterly.

“Then it _was_ your fault Merlin. A punishment for your clumsy behavior. Come put my food down on the table and then you are dismissed to do your chores. I will be joining the knights on the training ground today, so I will need my armor ready by 11.”

Merlin did as he was bid, pausing at the door with his basket of dirty clothes to look at Arthur’s back with longing and sadness. No matter how Merlin used to joke, Arthur was not stupid. He could not possibly actually believe that he had gotten cut by the wall; he just wanted to humiliate Merlin for his deception.

Arthur tried to pretend like he couldn’t feel Merlin’s eyes on him, and let out a sigh of relief when he finally heard Merlin close the door. Arthur truly was not sure why he kept being so cruel to Merlin. Before Merlin had arrive, Arthur had meant to apologize for the previous night when Merlin arrived at his chambers. Instead he had yelled at Merlin. He put his head in his hands and let out a slow breath. He would try to make it up to Merlin as soon as Lord Griffiths and his sons left. Sure, they would be here for a month, but the wellbeing of the kingdom was more important than the feelings of his manservant. Plus, Arthur did think that Merlin still needed to pay penance for his treasonous actions, and a month of not having Arthur’s protection would teach him his lesson.

Before he met Merlin, he wouldn’t have even cared enough about a meager servant to worry about his feelings, and would not have hesitated to have a sorcerer killed. A treacherous voice in his head told him that that was because he was not a very good person before he met Merlin, but he banished the thoughts from his mind. Merlin had him acting like a sentimental teenage girl, he thought.

Even though he knew in his heart that it wasn’t true, a bitter part of himself wondered if Merlin had him under a spell. Maybe _that’s_ why he cared about Merlin and his wellbeing. He would have to consult the books and scrolls Geoffrey had finally brought him. He simply did not know what to think; Merlin had him feeling confused.

However, he currently had a meeting with Lord Griffiths to attend to before training. They would be discussing the amount of taxes Griffiths’ fiefdom would pay in return for protection from Camelot if he were to sign the alliance with Arthur and become part of the kingdom. He did not have time to think about his manservant ~~and his adorably big ears~~.

Meanwhile, Merlin had just finished washing Arthur’s clothes and bed sheets. He went to drop them off at Arthur’s chambers and was relieved when he opened the doors to find the room empty. Arthur must have already left for his meeting, he thought. After this morning, Merlin really did not want to spend time with Arthur. Well, that was a lie. He always wanted to be around Arthur, the clotpole was always trying to get himself killed, but the way that Arthur was treating him right now hurt and left Merlin feeling desolate and empty.

At that thought, he jolted. He would have to hurry if he wanted to have Arthur’s armor ready in time at the rate he was going. Merlin no longer hoped for Arthur to show his approval; he only wanted to avoid being yelled at in front of all the knights and the sharp stab of hurt that accompanied Arthur’s anger.

He had barely sat down in the armory when, to his dismay, the Lord’s two sons walked in. He had not personally met the second son, Ezekiel, yet, but he looked just as mean as his brother (and even bigger if that was possible). 

“Well well well, if it isn’t the insolent whelp I was telling you about who ran into me, brother,” Abram sneered with a dangerous look in his eyes. The two of them walked over to Merlin and looked down at his progress in cleaning Arthur’s armor.

“Do you think this sorry work is acceptable, _boy_ ,” Ezekiel barked out, “this armor wouldn’t be in good enough condition for a squire, let alone the King.” He turned to Abram, “we should teach him a lesson. Servants are like dogs, if you don’t beat the bad behavior out of them, they’ll never learn.”

Abram laughed and grabbed Merlin, restraining his arms behind his back as Ezekiel cracked his knuckles.

Merlin shut his eyes and shrunk into himself. In an attempt to save himself, he yelled, “If you hit me people will notice! Several people already noticed it when you slapped me this morning, you don’t want them to know do you?” 

When he didn’t feel any pain, he opened his eyes to find the brothers looking at him contemplatively. After a few seconds, Ezekiel smirked, “There are lots of places where I can hit you that aren’t visible to the eye,” and before Merlin even had time to think, Ezekiel’s fist connected with his stomach, forcibly pushing the air out of Merlin’s lungs. 

Merlin instinctively cried out in pain, and Abram placed his hand in front of his mouth, gagging him. “Keep it quiet, _boy_ ,” he hissed. Merlin took several more hits to his torso before he was suddenly pushed to the floor roughly. Now that Abram did not have to hold Merlin in place, he joined Ezekiel as they both kicked him.

Merlin tried to keep his back and sides protected so that his kidneys would not take much damage. Throughout his years following Arthur into conflict after conflict, as well as helping Gaius, he had seen the results of damaged kidneys, and it was not pretty. However, there was only so much he could do, and he eventually heard a loud snap, and suddenly, every breath felt like his chest was filled with fire. He had been trying to muffle his sounds of pain, not wanting the brothers the satisfaction of hearing him cry, but at that he let out a scream.

At the noise, Gwaine, who had been slowly walking towards the armory, broke out into a run. The Griffiths heard the sound of someone approaching the room, and immediately stopped.

When Gwaine walked in, he surveyed the scene, and glared suspiciously at Abram and Ezekiel. “What is going on in here!” Gwaine demanded sharply while helping Merlin up, “I heard someone scream.”

Ezekiel calmly replied, “The boy hit the edge of the table and fell. We were just coming over to make sure he was okay.”

Gwaine turned to Merlin and shot him an inquisitive look. “It’s true,” Merlin choked out, trying (and failing) to hide his wince as he moved, jostling what was undeniably a broken rib. “If you insist…” Gwaine responded before turning to the brothers, “You should probably be on your way.”

The two brothers smiled at Gwaine, but then gave Merlin a threatening glare as they left the armory. Once they were gone Gwaine looked at Merlin with undisguised concern and said, “You don’t have to lie to me now that they are gone, Merlin.” However, Merlin just shook his head. He knew Gwaine, and if Merlin were to ever confirm that Ezekiel and Abram had actually hurt him, Gwaine wouldn’t hesitate to attack them. That might put the treaty at risk, and he could not afford to make Arthur angrier at him.

Merlin limped over to the table to finish cleaning Arthur’s armor, and after a few minutes Gwaine moved over to put on his own fighting gear.

The rest of the day passed relatively normal with the exception that every step and breath that Merlin took hurt. The rest of the week followed the same pattern.

The one change was that Merlin couldn’t seem to go anywhere alone; Gwaine, Lancelot, Gwen, and even some of the other knights always seemed to be accompanying him everywhere. He suspected immediately that Gwaine had put them all up to it, but by the fourth day of being escorted all around the castle, he was sure of it. It made him fondly roll his eyes. His friends were very protective, but it was also very sweet, and it kept the Griffiths largely away from him.

However, once in a while he would find himself alone in the washing room or elsewhere and they would ambush him. He was black and blue all over and now he could barely walk; Abram had stepped roughly on his left ankle yesterday, and Merlin thought it might be badly hurt. But no matter how badly he looked or how noticeably he limped, Arthur turned a blind eye. He wanted to tell Arthur more than anything, but he feared that he wouldn’t care or listen to him after what had happened after he originally told Arthur about how Abram had hit him.

Arthur had in fact noticed. He just was not sure how to approach Merlin about it. Part of his mind stubbornly thought that Merlin deserved it, but even if Merlin didn’t, he wasn’t sure what to say. He had treated Merlin so poorly the past several weeks, and Arthur truly did not have a solution how to make it up to him at this point. Merlin probably did not want to ever speak to him, and so Arthur laid off.

Arthur kept yelling at Merlin, even when he did not mean to, so he figured that if he didn’t say anything to Merlin then he couldn’t ever accidently hurt him. Overtime, Merlin would realize that Arthur had not said anything cruel in a while and would learn to trust him again. Anyway, if he were to apologize, (Kings do not do that) Merlin would surely ask him why he had let it get so bad, and what was Arthur supposed to say, that the reason he was so hurt by Merlin’s lying because he _loved_ him??

Fuck. Well, there goes not admitting it to himself. Shit. He’d royally screwed this up. He scrubbed his hands roughly over his face and hair trying not to cry; it would not be seemly for him to lose control of himself now.

Arthur was walking to another meeting with Lord Griffiths when he saw Gwaine approaching him with a murderous look in his eyes. “Is everything okay Gwa-” Arthur didn’t have time to finish speaking before Gwaine punched him hard across the jaw. Arthur stumbled back, feeling blood fill his mouth.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing Sir Gwaine, what you just did was treason, another King might have you hanged for that,” Arthur said through the blood as two guards rushed up and grabbed Gwaine roughly.

Gwaine fought in their grasp, trying to get back at Arthur. “I could say the same thing to you princess,” he snarled. “I tried to let you and Merlin figure this out on your own, but you’ve gone too far this time. You should see what they fucking did to him,” Gwaine said.

“What are you talking about,” Arthur questioned, frustrated.

“I found Merlin in a puddle of his own fucking blood in the stables, you son of a bitch. It’s been obvious that those bastards have been beating him since they got here, and you didn’t do fucking anything,” Gwaine yelled, tears prickling in the corner of his eyes.

Arthur stood, shell shocked before quietly asking, “Where’s Merlin. I. I… wh-what did they do to him?” Arthur felt like he could not catch his breath.

Gwaine continued to glare at him. “Why should I tell you, do you want to go rub it in that you don’t care about him?” he growled.

“Please, Gwaine. Please. Tell me. I’m going to try and make it up to him.” Gwaine continued to glare at him, but eventually let out a long breath and responded, “Gaius is looking after him.”

“Thank you,” Arthur responded sincerely. “I have to send you to the dungeons for a bit so that I don’t look weak, but as soon as the meeting is over I’ll go visit Merlin, and afterwards I will see you and try and explain myself as much as I can.” At that, Gwaine was pulled away and led to the dungeons.

Arthur was distracted throughout the entire meeting. All he could think about was Merlin. After about 30 minutes, he dismissed Lord Griffiths, saying he wasn’t feeling well, and ran up to Gaius’ chambers, taking two stairs at a time.

He burst through the door only to stop dead in his tracks. There was Merlin, poor beautiful, delicate Merlin laying on the physician’s table while Gaius put a salve on the wounds on his back. Wounds that looked suspiciously like they were inflicted with a whip. He felt nauseous, and stumbled to the chair next to Merlin’s limp body.

Gaius gave him a withering stare, “Why are you here my Lord?” Arthur, looking rightfully shameful, whispered, “Despite what my recent actions imply, I do care deeply for Merlin. I want to apologize to him.” Gaius looked at him exasperatedly and muttered something that sounded like “damn idiots,” before returning to treating Merlin’s back.

After several minutes of silence, Gaius looked back at Arthur, only to notice him holding one of Merlin’s hands, gingerly running his thumb over Merlin’s bruised knuckles. Arthur smiled sadly as he thought that Merlin must have fought back against his attackers as hard as he could.

“He won’t wake for several more hours, Sire,” Gaius said. “I gave him a potion that knocked him out; he was in too much pain when he was conscious, and I did not want him moving around and causing himself further harm. I can have someone come get you when he wakes up.”

“I would appreciate that,” Arthur responded, looking conflicted as he stood up and let go of Merlin’s hand. “I need to go visit Gwaine in the dungeons.” At Gaius’ raised eyebrow, Arthur expanded, “he punched me, so I had to make it look like he was being punished… even if he was right…”

“Ah,” Gaius responded, “I was wondering why you had a black eye. When you come back up, I’ll give you something to reduce the swelling.” At Arthur’s reluctance to leave, Gaius shooed him out of his chambers.

Arthur walked as slowly as possible down to the dungeons, not looking forward to the verbal (and possibly physical) lashing he was about to receive from Gwaine. When he finally made it to the entrance of the dungeon, he took a deep breath and strode to Gwaine’s cell, sitting down in front of it. Gwaine still looked murderous.

Neither of them spoke for several seconds. Finally, Arthur said, “I’m going to try to make this right Gwaine,” after being interrupted by a loud snort from Gwaine, he continued, “I know I have treated Merlin poorly these past few weeks, but I’m going to be better about that.”

Gwaine looked at him defiantly, “That’s not good enough princess.” Arthur reeled. “What else am I supposed to do, Gwaine?” He tried to sound stern, but the question came out more plaintive than anything.

“Well, first of all kick the Lord and his scumbag sons out of Camelot,” Gwaine responded. When Arthur opened his mouth, Gwaine cut him off before he could start talking, “We don’t actually need this treaty. Their small fiefdom would provide us with nothing that we need. I understand that you want to stick it to Cenred by making an alliance with one of his Lords, but you do not need to. Merlin is more important.”

Arthur stared at the floor, trying to decide what to do. “You won’t ever hear me acknowledge this in public, but you’re right. Give me a day and they will be on their way.”

“Why a day, why not kick them out now?”

“I want to beat the shit out of Abram and Ezekiel tomorrow on the training field,” as he said that, Arthur looked up into Gwaine’s eyes with a feral grin.

“You and me both princess. But there’s another thing you need to do.” Arthur furrowed his brows, trying to think of what Gwaine could be talking about. “Fuck you’re dense,” Gwaine responded to Arthur’s confusion, “you need to accept Merlin’s magic!”

Arthur looked around, panicked, when Gwaine said the word magic. “You can’t just say that in public,” he hissed, “and how do you even know about that?”

“Everybody knows about it,” Gwaine sounded exasperated as he rolled his eyes. “Oh,” Arthur responded articulately.

Arthur bit his lip, looking nervous, “I’ve actually been reading more about magic the past couple of days. I’m still not completely comfortable with it, but I am trying for Merlin. Maybe the laws need to change. After all I love him too much to continue to see him in pain-” Arthur stopped himself all of a sudden, realizing that he had told someone else about his feelings for Merlin.

“Woof, you have a lootttttt of groveling to do, mate,” Gwaine laughed sharply. “Of course, I already knew you were heads over heels for him, but I’ve never thought you deserved him. Maybe after you make magic legal, I’ll reconsider. But whatever you do, if you ever hurt Merlin again you won’t be around long enough to apologize to him,” Gwaine said menacingly.

Arthur was about to respond when a servant rushed down to the dungeons, and upon seeing Arthur, exclaimed, “Gaius says to tell you that Merlin is awake.”

At that, Arthur stood up quickly, nodded to Gwaine, and then ran back up to Gaius’ chambers. When he knocked, Merlin answered, “Come in.” Arthur opened the door, and he and Merlin just stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity.

Finally, Arthur started walking slowly forward towards Merlin, trying not to scare him. When he reached the chair, he looked at Merlin again and asked, “Can I sit?” Merlin nodded silently.

They continued to just stare at each other as Arthur lowered himself into the chair, and after several minutes of awkward silence, they started speaking at the same time. Merlin laughed and signaled for Arthur to speak first.

Arthur took a deep breath and started, “I have a lot to say, so if you could let me finish before you say anything, I would really appreciate it.” At Merlin’s nod, he continued, “First of all I wanted to apologize for not saying anything and treating you poorly because of your, well, your _magic_. I’ve been trying to educate myself before I spoke to you about it, but I should have told you first I don’t hate you. I’ve realized that even though I had acknowledged that to myself, I never actually told you.”

Arthur looked conflicted, but pushed on, “I am still hurt that you lied to me, but I understand why. If anything, my poor response is proof that you had the right to feel scared of me.” Merlin looked like he was going to argue, but Arthur put a finger up to his lips, and Merlin blushed, but didn’t say anything more.

“You won’t ever have to see any of the Griffiths again, and before you try to talk me out of it, they really aren’t that important. And also, I’m going to need guidance on it from you, but I want to work towards legalizing magic.”

Merlin gasped, putting his hands up to his mouth before whispering, “Why?”

“Well…” Arthur stalled. “If we’re being completely honest with each other from now on, well, you should know that, and, well, obviously you don’t have to feel the same way, I won’t force anything on you-”

Merlin laughed, “You’re bumbling, Sire,” and Merlin gave Arthur one of his smiles that took Arthur’s breath away. Arthur laughed nervously before steeling himself, “Well, Merlin, I care for you deeply. Deeper perhaps than any man should feel towards another. You are not just a friend to me.”

For the second time in the last couple of minutes, Merlin gasped. The noise drew Arthur’s gaze to Merlin’s lips, and before he knew it he was leaning in for a kiss. Arthur paused for a second right before their mouths collided, waiting for Merlin to stop him, and when he didn’t, Arthur closed the final gap.

All of a sudden, Arthur was filled with warmth and he felt content for the first time in a long time. He relaxed into the kiss, and just as the kiss started to get more passionate, Merlin pushed him away. At that, Arthur let out a very unkingly whimper, and looked questioningly at Merlin.

“I like you too, Arthur, but you’ve treated me like I was nothing for the past three weeks. I don’t think I can go on with this.” At Arthur’s gutted look, Merlin clarified, “I don’t mean forever, I do really like you, I just need some time.”

Arthur nodded furiously in agreement. “I’ll court you properly, and make this up to you. I can’t promise that I will immediately be okay with seeing you do magic, but I don’t want you to hide from me. I’ll do anything you want.”

Merlin smiled up at him, “Well, I expect a lot of groveling from you, Arthur.”

At that, Arthur groaned and thumped his head down onto the table. “You sound just like Gwaine.”

Merlin laughed again, and God, Arthur would do anything to hear that laugh all the time. “I’ll take that as a compliment. Gwaine is a good man.” Merlin looked softly at Arthur, continuing, “As are you. Even if you often act like a clotpole. But we can work on that.”

The two of them looked at each other, and while there was a lot they still had to talk about, for those few seconds everything was good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed this leave a comment :) I hope the ending didn't feel too rushed, I just didn't want the 2 of them to be dumb anymore, and don't worry Merlin (and Gwaine) isn't going to let Arthur off that easy


	4. Courting Merlin (involves a lot of groveling)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur gets revenge for Merlin and then just spends a lot of time groveling/ trying to court Merlin. I attempt to make Arthur grovel enough even tho I just want them to get together lol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is late I had to take my cat in to the vet due to an unexpected emergency so I haven't really editted this at all, but I wanted to post it for you guys. I'll probs proofread this tmw, but if you notice any typos/ continuity issues please let me know in the comments. I added one last chapter that will involve them together more/ legalizing magic/ etc.  
> All mistakes are my own

The first thing Arthur saw when he woke up was George’s face looming over his own. For a split second Arthur was confused. Why was George waking him up and not Merlin? Then the memories of the previous day washed over him, and the utter shame that came along with them.

He buried his head into the pillows as he heard George bustle around the room. “You need to get up sire if you want to make it to your meeting with Lord Griffiths,” the servant prodded. At that, Arthur shot up in bed.

“Tell Lord Griffiths that I’m moving the meeting back so that I can attend knight training today,” Arthur commanded as he started throwing on his clothes. At George’s attempts to try and help him, he shooed him away, “Go now, I don’t need your help, go find Lord Griffiths and convey that we will convene at one. Afterwards I’d appreciate it if you could have my armor prepared, I have another matter to see to before training.”

Arthur would let Lord Griffiths know that the treaty was called off, but first he needed to get revenge on Merlin’s behalf. As he strode out of his chambers, he told the guard standing by to release Gwaine from the dungeons, and to tell the knight that he was expected on the training field in an hour.

He then briskly walked up to Gaius’ chambers. He wanted to see Merlin again. He had spent so much time pushing Merlin away in an attempt to hide his hurt and feelings, that Arthur didn’t want to be separated from him again.

He had spent several hours with Merlin last night, talking through his reasonings for his recent actions while Merlin looked nonplussed, not letting Arthur get away with simply spouting his excuses. “I appreciate knowing what you were thinking Arthur, but just because you’ve managed to justify your actions to yourself doesn't mean you didn't hurt me,” he had said with a quiet sternness. Merlin never yelled, but that did not mean that Arthur wasn’t cowed.

“I know Merlin.” Arthur had tried to sound as sincere as he possibly could, “And I know that you may never forgive me, you probably shouldn’t, but I will work as hard as I can to prove to you that I’m sorry.” A tense silence surrounded the two of them.

Merlin was the one who broke the silence, “I think it would be best if you were to leave now. I have a lot to think about and I’m tired.”

Arthur looked like he was about to argue, but thought better of it. His shoulders slumped, he nodded his head. “Of course. I’ll follow your lead when it comes to our relationship, whether it is simply friendship, or… or more. By all rights, you shouldn’t want to ever see or speak to me again, so the fact that you are giving me a second chance is more than I deserve.”

As he turned to leave, Merlin grabbed his arm. “I would like to see you tomorrow morning if you have time,” Merlin’s tone was a mixture of sadness, hopefulness, and longing. 

“If that is what you want, I’ll be here,” Arthur smiled kindly. “And goodnight Merlin, I hope you’re able to sleep.”

“You too,” Merlin spoke, and at that Arthur had turned and left the room.

Now that the morning had come around, Arthur hoped Merlin hadn't changed his mind about wanting to see him. Even though it wasn’t that early, Arthur tried to open the door to Gaius’ chambers as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake Merlin if he was still sleeping. However, when he entered, he found Merlin propped up in bed eating something that looked like brown mush from a bowl.

Merlin raised the bowl of questionable looking slop and wryly said, “Gaius says that it’s better if I stay on soft foods for a few days.”

“I hope it tastes better than it looks.”

“Ugh, unfortunately not.” Arthur winced in sympathy at Merlin’s grimace.

Arthur sat down, looking at Merlin with cautious optimism, before asking, “How are you feeling this morning?”

“A bit better… my back still hurts obviously, but my-” Merlin suddenly cut himself off, looking at Arthur apprehensively for a few seconds, finally settling to staring intently at his breakfast.

“Your what Merlin? I mean it when I say I don’t want you to have to hide or lie to me anymore.”

Merlin furrowed his brow, clearly fighting an internal battle. He kept opening his mouth and then closing it again, and if Merlin wasn’t in such obvious emotional pain, Arthur thought it would be cute. Merlin finally steeled himself, looked Arthur defiantly in the eye, and said, “My magic naturally helps me heal faster.”

“I’m glad Merlin.”

“Do you actually mean that Arthur?” Merlin sounded resigned. To his own surprise, Arthur really did feel happy that Merlin was performing magic. “I really do. I don’t like seeing you in pain.” Arthur paused briefly before continuing, “So are you casting a spell? Your eyes aren’t gold?”

“I mentioned it when you first saw my magic, but I never ‘learned’ it. I am magic, I’m a warlock. Most of the time I don’t even use any spells. I just think of something and magic happens. Magic runs through my veins just like blood does. So when I'm injured the magic within me steps up to help with the healing process. Speeds things up a bit.”

Arthur looked very interested at this information. “I didn’t know that was possible.” Arthur tried to recall the memory of the moments right after he had found out about Merlin’s magic. It was all very fuzzy; he was so shocked and hurt in the moment that he hadn’t really comprehended most of what Merlin had said, but he did remember one thing.

“You said you’ve saved me with magic.” Merlin nodded in confirmation. “I want to hear all about it, but right now I need to go teach two uppity nobles their place.”

Merlin smiled wryly, “I’m not a damsel in distress Arthur, you don’t need to fight in my honor.”

“Even if you act like a girl sometimes, I know you’re not a damsel,” Arthur teased, “But I won’t let them get away with this. If they think that they can beat those who do not have social power, then they need to be taken down several notches.”

“Dumb knights and their chivalry,” Merlin muttered, trying to hide his smile. He was trying not to let Arthur off easily after all, it wouldn’t do to look at him fondly.

“Can I visit you again this evening?” Arthur asked. Merlin nodded before saying, “I’ve had strong feelings for you for a long time now, but I really do need to go slow. And I cannot promise anything. I do not know what to think. My heart is telling me to let you in, but my brain is yelling at me to run away.”

They looked at each other soberly. Arthur nodded, trying to keep a neutral expression on his face. “I meant what I said last night Merlin. I will take whatever you want to give me at your pace. That includes returning to work by the way. Take your time to heal, and if you need more time away from the job after you’re physically well, don’t hesitate to take it.”

When Arthur got to the armory, his armor was perfectly cleaned. While George was helping him into it, Gwaine entered the room. He and Arthur stared at each other for several minutes, daring the other to look away first. After Arthur was fully suited up, George looked uncomfortably between the two of them before asking to be excused.

As soon as he left, Arthur blurted out, “I want the first crack at the both of them.” Gwaine looked at him stubbornly, before relenting. “Fine, but I want a shot at them as well.”

“Of course. In fact, I was thinking that you could teach them a lesson off the training field. If a King were to punch the two sons of a Lord, that would essentially be a declaration of war,” Arthur looked slyly at Gwaine, “An errant knight however… a blind eye could be turned to that.”

Gwaine let out a surprised laugh, and grinned a Cheshire Cat grin. “An astute observation, princess.” 

They nodded to each other and walked out of the armory together. They shared a conspiratorial look when they saw that Abram and Ezekiel were already standing by the training field.

“How about the three of us spar,” Arthur said, slapping Ezekiel hard on the back, causing him to stumble forward several steps. Even though it was phrased as a question, Arthur’s tone made it clear that it was not. 

The two brothers looked at each other warily. Obviously trying to diffuse the tension, Ezekiel chuckled, “Your armor is actually clean today My Lord, did something happen to your normal manservant, or did you sack the _boy_?”

That was the wrong thing to say. If looks could kill, the brothers would be dead a dozen times over as word of what had happened had spread to the rest of the knights.

“Hmm,” Arthur hummed dangerously, a wild look in his eyes, “let’s get to work.”

The three of them walked to an empty area on the training field, and Arthur squared off against the two of them, changing the grip on his practice sword to prepare for the start of the duel.

He watched as the two brothers started to circle him, following the movement of their feet with his eyes, waiting for one of them to give themselves away. In the days he had witnessed them spar, they both practically projected their attacks beforehand through their sloppy footwork.

Finally, Arthur saw Abram shift his feet, and expecting the high inside lunge attack, Arthur was able to easily parry the blow. Abram’s bad footwork meant he had a poor center of balance, and without having to move, Arthur pushed him off balance, sending him reeling away. While he was able to regain his footing, Abram was clearly embarrassed.

Seeing his brother begin to attack, Ezekiel moved forward to strike at Arthur from the other side, but as soon as Arthur had pushed Abram away, he twirled to face Ezekiel, deflected his blow and returned with a hit of his own.

This continued for several minutes, a pattern of lunging, parrying, and riposting, Arthur clearly playing with them. The surrounding knights were pretending to spar, but were really focused on watching Arthur take on Abram and Ezekiel. The brothers were getting more and more frustrated, Arthur thought triumphantly. Flustered fighters were sloppy and easy to finish off.

Arthur was done playing around. All of a sudden, he went on his own attack, the brothers barely able to block each blow, stumbling backwards and losing ground. Arthur delivered one last blow to Abram, sending his sword flying several feet away before striking Ezekiel’s sword near his hand, sending such strong reverberations down the hilt that Ezekiel had to drop the sword, gasping, as his hand cramped painfully.

Seeing Ezekiel try and reach for his fallen sword, Arthur held his sword up to his throat, before moving in close. “He has a name,” Arthur growled. At Ezekiel’s confused look, Arthur repeated, “the ‘boy’ as you call him. _His name is Merlin_. You would do best to call him as such, as he is 10x the man you are.” Striding away he caught Abram looking down at his side, alarmed at the fact that he was bleeding from a small gash.

“Whoops,” Arthur laughed cruelly, “A real sword must have gotten mixed into the pile of practice swords, my bad, I hadn’t realized this was sharpened. You should probably have that seen to.” His voice was devoid of any sympathy.

When he reached the edge of the field, Gwaine gave him a high five. “Go tell Lord Griffiths he should pack up; we have this under control.”

“Give ‘em hell,” Arthur called as he walked away, not bothering to give the two brothers a backwards glance.

By the early evening, the Griffiths had left Camelot and Arthur had found great pleasure in seeing their bruised faces when they had ridden off. One glance at Gwaine’s bruised knuckles left nothing to the imagination in terms of what had happened.

While all of this was happening, Merlin was stuck in his chambers with nothing to do but think. He knew that logically he should distance himself from Arthur, but he couldn’t seem to make himself. Even with all the pain Arthur had caused him, and with all the future heartache Arthur was going to inflict on him, (even if they did stay together, Arthur would have to take a wife eventually) he still loved him.

He knew it probably wasn’t healthy, and that’s why he was trying to take this slow with Arthur, but he knew in his heart of hearts that if Arthur continued to offer a relationship, Merlin would inevitably say yes.

Arthur was also thinking about he and Merlin’s future. He had thought about bringing Merlin dinner from the kitchen, but had remembered at the last minute that Gaius didn’t want him eating solid foods yet. He had hoped to start courting Merlin that night, and so wondered what else he could do when it hit him: flowers.

He would go out and pick some flowers and give them to Merlin. However, by the time that he stood in front of the door to Gaius’ chambers, he was less confident. Were the flowers too much? Would Merlin think Arthur was trying to push him? Should he throw the flowers away?

Arthur paced outside of the door, occasionally raising his hand to knock on the door, before lowering it and pacing some more. Eventually, he heard Merlin call out from behind the door, “Oh come in you idiot, what are you waiting for?” Arthur could practically hear Merlin roll his eyes through the door.

Arthur sheepishly opened the door. “You could hear me, could you?” Merlin gave him a withering look, “If you were walking any louder, I would have feared an elephant outside my door. Of course, I heard you, dollophead.”

Trying to reestablish some of the banter they had once had, Arthur responded, “careful Merlin, that’s treason.” He smiled hopefully.

Merlin did not disappoint. “Oh, I’m sorry. Of course, I heard you, Your Royal Dollopheadness.” They both laughed. Merlin looked curiously at Arthur, “What are you hiding behind your back?”

Arthur turned bright red. “I-It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“Arthur…” Merlin fixed him with a no-nonsense stare.

“Well… I brought you some flowers,” Arthur murmured, clearly ready to go on the defensive. At that, Merlin blushed as well.

“I don’t mean to rush you into anything Merlin, I just- I promised that I would court you properly, and I thought you might like a bit of decoration.” Arthur gave Merlin his best puppy dog eyes.

“I appreciate this Arthur,” Merlin grudgingly acknowledged. “Why don’t you find a vase to hold them in, and bring them over here so I can get a better look at them.”

As Arthur bustled around, Merlin started talking again. “It’s true that I’m nowhere near ready for a relationship with you yet, but this is very touching, and I won’t say no to a bit of groveling. I’ll tell you if you ever overstep my boundaries.”

Arthur sat down, holding out the vase for Merlin to hold. Merlin stared at them as Arthur squirmed in his seat nervously. “They’re quite beautiful Arthur, thank you,” Merlin said quietly. “Well, they aren’t as beautiful as you, but I tried,” Arthur said smoothly.

Merlin burst out laughing. “That was awful Arthur, no wonder you never bring anyone home.” Arthur sputtered. “I’ll have you know that I’ve taken many maidens to my bed,” he said indignantly.

“Please, I wake you up every morning and wash your sheets, don’t try to lie to me,” Merlin smirked. At that, Arthur pouted angrily, in a way that Merlin had to admit was cute.

“I didn’t come here to be embarrassed, you know. I came here to listen to the stories of how you’ve saved my life over the years.”

“I’m sorry to inform you then that most of the stories involve you embarrassing yourself in a number of ways,” Merlin chuckled. Arthur crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Come on, just start telling me already. Start at the first time you used magic around me. I have all night.”

“If we’re starting from the very beginning this is going to take a lot longer than one night Arthur.”

“Well, you should get started then,” Arthur said, intrigued.

“So… remember when we first met? How you kept tripping over things?” Merlin asked innocently.

“Merlin!”

By the end of that night, Arthur was astonished by Merlin. How had he missed this for so long? Sure, he had known that Merlin was brave, but now Arthur thought that he must be the bravest person he knew. He said as much to Merlin.

Merlin blushed (Arthur really did love making him flustered) as Arthur stood up. Much like the night before, Arthur wished him a goodnight, and went back to his chambers to think about everything he had learned.

For the next two weeks while Merlin recovered, they repeated this pattern every day. Arthur would visit Merlin in the evenings, and they would share dinner (once Merlin was able to eat real food again) and talk about Merlin’s magic. Every once in a while they would also talk about other things: Ealdor, their childhoods, funny things that had happened in the castle.

One memorable night began when Arthur arrived early, walking in to find Merlin trying to apply the healing salve onto his back by himself. Arthur strode across the room and placed a hand on Merlin's shoulder before asking if he could help Merlin.

When Merlin had agreed, Arthur had taken the jar that housed the salve from Merlin’s hands and had started massaging it onto Merlin’s healing wounds. Merlin was at first stiff under Arthur’s touch, but quickly relaxed at the feeling of Arthur’s warm hands. Even with all the years of fighting and manual labor he had done, Merlin wondered at how gentle Arthur’s hands were as they traced the scarred skin.

“It’s healing nicely,” Arthur had whispered. “The scars aren’t that inflamed anymore.” Merlin hummed in agreement. Afterwards, they had not talked about Merlin’s magic. Instead they simply told stories about the trouble they had each gotten into in their respective childhoods, laughing at each other’s stupidity. 

After hours of talking to each other, Merlin let out a yawn, and Arthur had quietly excused himself so that they could both get some rest.

Sixteen days after the Griffiths' had left Camelot (not that Arthur was counting), Arthur woke up to Merlin prodding him for the first time in what seemed like eternity. Arthur gave him a wide, gummy smile. “Good morning Merlin,” he said cheerily.

“I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you excited to see me in the morning,” Merlin laughed dryly, “Maybe I should get beaten up more.” At Arthur’s wrecked look, Merlin took his arm, “I was only joking Arthur…”

“I know,” Arthur said gruffly, rubbing his thumbs in circles around Merlin's wrists. “I don’t like you joking about it though,” Arthur trailed off quietly. For a minute neither of them spoke, reveling in the intimate silence they shared. Eventually Merlin stepped away, and went to fetch Arthur’s clothes.

As he helped dress Arthur, he chattered about all the things Arthur needed to do that day, and Arthur looked down at him fondly.

For the most part, the two of them returned to the friendly banter they had shared before Arthur had found out about Merlin’s magic. In the public eye, Merlin followed Arthur around. He stood behind him in council meetings, and cleaned his armor.

However, several things changed in private. If Arthur didn’t have anything to do, he would follow Merlin around, trying to help with his chores. The first time it happened, Arthur had run into Merlin on his way to the washroom.

“Let me help you with that Merlin,” Arthur had offered cheerfully. “I can do my own laundry.”

At Merlin’s raised eyebrow, Arthur said, “Kings sometimes do their own chores you know,” and then plucked the basket out of Merlin’s hands and walked towards the washroom.

“That’s the first I’ve ever heard of that,” Merlin said dryly, but Arthur was already out of earshot. From then on, Merlin would occasionally come back to Arthur’s chambers to find the King cleaning his own fireplace or shining his own shoes.

Merlin also spent a lot more time in Arthur’s chambers at night. While Merlin had always stole food off of Arthur’s plate, Arthur now had two meals brought up so that Merlin could eat with him. He even sometimes shared his wine with Merlin. “You’re too skinny, can’t have people thinking that I don’t pay you enough for you to eat,” Arthur had tried to justify. Even when the prat was trying to court him, he couldn’t openly admit it, Merlin thought drolly.

While they ate, they would often discuss magic. Now that Arthur was caught up on all of the times Merlin had saved him, Merlin explained magic itself to Arthur. How it was a tool that could be used for good or evil. How Uther’s policies encouraged magic users to turn evil.

Arthur would ask question after question, actively listening to every word that left Merlin’s mouth. Whenever a topic came up that was painful for Merlin, Arthur would take his hand and apologize, promising that he would legalize magic, he just needed to know as much as possible beforehand.

And Arthur kept up his promise. With Merlin’s help, he began to piece together a plan on how to best reintegrate magic into Camelot. Most of the officials on his council were Uther’s men, and so it would be incredibly hard to convince any of them that magic could be used for good. They also needed a plan on how to convince magic users that this policy shift wasn’t a trap, and how to process magic based crimes.

In fact, Merlin very quickly became an unofficial advisor on many parts of policy that Arthur was trying to enact. He was an ambassador between Camelot and the Druids, spreading the word that magic would soon be legal in Camelot once again. Lots of his free time was spent pouring over tax documents and reports from outlying parts of the kingdom with Arthur. Too long touches and glances continually passed between the two of them as they discussed the future of Camelot in the close quarters of Arthur’s chambers.

Still, other free days were spent in the forest with Arthur. Under the guise of hunting trips, Arthur would take him on a picnic or to visit some lake or overlook that Arthur remembered from his childhood. They would spend all afternoon lounging in the grass, enjoying the weather and each other’s company.

Once Arthur had sworn up and down that he would not bring any harm to animals on these trips, Merlin would let his magic out and the creatures of the forest were drawn to his location. Arthur would watch in awe as Merlin was surrounded by bunnies, laughing and smiling in joy.

That was another thing that changed. Arthur wanted Merlin to use magic as much as he could around Arthur. After about a month, Arthur had stopped wincing and tensing every time Merlin’s eyes glowed gold. He now looked forward to every time Merlin used his magic. It was obviously so natural for him, that Merlin was only truly free when he wasn’t having to restrain his magic.

And a free Merlin was the most beautiful of all.

The last big change that occurred was that Arthur kept giving Merlin gifts. Merlin had explicitly told him that he didn’t want anything flashy, and so most of the gifts came in the form of clothes. It began with Arthur shyly giving Merlin a new neckerchief, but after a month or so, it moved on to Arthur giving him older pieces of Arthur’s wardrobe.

He would have Merlin try on different tunics and pants that were too small for Arthur now, and tell him to keep the things that fit him. On one such occasion, Merlin commented, “You know, I shouldn’t even consider this courting. You just like to see me in your clothes you possessive bastard.”

“I mean, you’re right,” Arthur conceded, looking Merlin up and down in what was obviously meant to be a stealthy way, but failed miserably. “But that doesn’t mean it isn’t still courting.” They smiled at each other.

While they had been circling each other since the days of Arthur visiting Merlin in Gaius’ chambers, their relationship finally explicitly moved beyond friendship three months after Merlin had returned to work.

It was one of the nights that Arthur had invited Merlin to stay for dinner, and they were both lounging around his chambers. It was a cold night, and even with the window closed and the fire burning, Arthur still shivered at the chill. “Do you think you could do something about this blasted cold,” Arthur griped.

Merlin simply raised a hand and the room immediately rose to a comfortable temperature. “Wow,” Arthur breathed out. He then motioned for Merlin to move close to him. Arthur wasn’t sure what possessed him, but he grabbed a piece of fruit from his plate and held it up to Merlin’s mouth, maintaining eye contact with Merlin the entire time. Merlin ate it, and they both stared at each other heatedly as they shifted closer together still.

“Merlin…” Arthur whispered reverently. “I don’t want to rush you but-” Before Arthur could finish the sentence, he was cut off by Merlin’s lips colliding with his. It was messy and initially awkward as they tried to figure out how to position themselves, but soon they were kissing passionately.

This time it was Arthur who slowed the kiss down, pulling away gently from the kiss, “Are you sure you want this Merlin?” He asked running his thumbs up and down Merlin's cheeks.

“Yes. Yes, I do… these past few months you have shown me how good of a man you can be. You’ve verbally apologized, but more than that, your actions have proven that you’re sorry for how you acted. That you want to change. I will never be able to forget what you did to me, and I don’t think I want to, but I’m ready to move on. I forgive you, Arthur.”

By the end of his speech, both boys were teary eyed. “You are the reason that I am the man that I am… you’re the reason that I want to be a better man,” Arthur responded. They leaned in simultaneously for a sweet kiss.

“Would it be too much to ask that you sleep with me tonight,” Arthur implored.

“A-arthur… I don’t think I’m ready for that… I mean, I still want to take this relatively slow,” Merlin said nervously.

“No no no, I didn’t mean like that,” Arthur reassured. “I just want to sleep with you, as in sleep next to you. Now that I can have you I want to hold you in my arms.” Merlin thought about it for a second before nodding.

“Are you comfortable with me sleeping in my underwear?” Arthur asked. “I am if you are,” Merlin responded. Merlin began to unbutton his shirt, but Arthur stopped him.

“Let me undress _you_ for once,” Arthur looked hopeful.

“You’re ridiculous,” Merlin laughed, but didn’t stop Arthur.

When both of them were down to their underwear they slid into bed. They both initially laid on their backs stiffly, looking up at the ceiling and not touching. After several tense minutes, Arthur sighed and turned towards Merlin. He then manhandled Merlin so that Arthur was curled around his body.

Merlin continued to tense for a couple seconds before relaxing, letting all the stress and anxiety out of his body. Right as Merlin was drifting off to sleep, Arthur murmured, "Does this mean that I don't have to grovel anymore?"

Merlin snorted, "No you silly prat, don't be ridiculous." At Arthur's grumble, Merlin added, "And you still have to convince Gwaine that you're good enough for me, so good luck with that." Arthur groaned at that. 

"You're lucky that I love you Merlin," Arthur whispered grumpily. "Groveling is one thing, but Gwaine's another."

"Mmm, shut up I'm going to sleep."

"Unbelievable," Arthur cried out, exasperated. But he wasn't really upset as he kissed the back of Merlin's head, both of them drifting off to sleep with smiles on their faces. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! Did I let Arthur off too early? Again if you enjoyed this and/or found any errors plz comment and drop a kudos it gives me the energy to write


	5. Magic and Marriage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gwaine continues to be iconic. I remember that there are other characters besides Merlin, Arthur, and Gwaine (but not really). Pure fluffy crack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been a wild ride! I thought my first fic would be a short like 4000 words, but here we are at 17000+ words. Thank you to everyone who left me comments and/or kudos!  
> All mistakes are my own.

Gwaine had very quickly caught on to the change in Arthur and Merlin’s relationship. Even though he knew it was bound to happen, he was still not satisfied that Arthur had changed enough, or was worthy of Merlin’s affections.

He first cornered Arthur, ambushing him after a long day of training. The past few days Arthur and Merlin were practically inseparable (even more so than before, which was saying something). However, today Merlin had been sent by Gaius to collect some herbs from the forest, an activity that would take up most of the day, and so Gwaine jumped at the opportunity to interrogate Arthur.

When Arthur returned to the armory to get out of his armor, he found Gwaine leaning casually against the table that normally stored Arthur’s gear. Gwaine looked at Arthur with a feral grin, and said, “Why don’t you get changed, and then the two of us need to have a chat.”

Arthur looked appropriately alarmed, but followed Gwaine’s instructions, keeping an eye on the knight as he got changed as if he feared Gwaine would attack him while Arthur was undressing. He tried to take his armor off as slowly as possible, stalling for as much time as possible. One glance at Gwaine and his unimpressed expression told Arthur that the knight knew exactly what he was trying to do.

Finally, Arthur could not delay the impossible any longer, and he looked at Gwaine, “So are we going to do this here, or somewhere else?”

“I think we should take a walk princess.”

“You know when you phrase it like that it sounds like you’re going to kill me…”

“Hmm… we’ll see. That may depend on your answers,” Gwaine cheerily replied, pulling a knife from a hidden sheath on his leg and twirling it between his fingers. Arthur gulped, eyes growing wide.

They walked in tense silence until they reached a clearing far enough away from the castle that their conversation wouldn’t be overheard. “So, do you have anything you want to tell me, princess?” Gwaine inquired, a fake sweetness to his voice.

“Well, you see… Merlin and I have… decided to move… beyond friendship as it were…” Arthur awkwardly stated, stuttering over his words, staring intently at the knife in Gwaine’s hand.

Gwaine sighed, “I was afraid of that…” he groaned. “I don’t know what he sees in you…” he drifted off, a bitter, jealous tone to his voice. Upon seeing that Arthur wasn’t listening to what he was saying because he was so intent on staring at the knife, Gwaine let out another long suffering sigh.

“I’m not actually going to stab you,” Gwaine muttered, “It would make Merlin sad.”

As Gwaine slid his knife back into its sheath, Arthur sputtered, “That’s your reasoning? Not that killing me would be treasonous? Or that as a knight you’ve sworn to protect me?”

“Did I _fucking_ stutter princess?” Gwaine deadpanned. “You’ve always known where my loyalties really lie.”

Arthur nodded his head in concession. He greatly relaxed as soon as Gwaine has put his knife away, maybe this wouldn’t be that bad, he thought _._

“Well if that’s all Sir Gwaine, I’ll be on my way,” Arthur tried to make a hasty retreat.

“Oh no you don’t. I am certainly not done with you.” Gwaine fixed him with a serious stare.

“I understand that you are concerned about Merlin… you should be after what I did to him, but Merlin is an adult who can make his own decisions, and he’s decided that he wants to be with me.” Arthur said defensively.

“I know that. But just because he can make his own decisions doesn’t mean that they’re good ones.” Gwaine shot back. “He is not some plaything for you to use and then throw away when you get bored, or an object for you to collect just because you know that he wants you. He is not your dirty secret,” Gwaine growled.

Arthur stepped back as if he had been hit. “I do not think of him in that way; do you really think that lowly of me?” he asked quietly. Before Gwaine could answer, he went on, “Merlin is possibly the first person I have ever actually loved beyond a sense of duty. I never imagined that I would be able to be with someone that I truly loved. Everyone that my father or the council tried to get me to court was a political ‘object’ as you put it. Loving Merlin is a choice that I have made, not something that someone else decided for me.”

By the time he’d finished, Arthur was breathing hard, trying to put everything he had into the speech. He did not know why, but he felt desperate to receive Gwaine’s approval, even if he wouldn’t ever admit it out loud to the knight.

“And what about the law? What are you going to do about that, Arthur?” Gwaine demanded.

“I…I’ve been planning on changing the law so that I could marry Merlin. I know that being with another man is illegal currently, maybe the only thing that my father hated as much as magic, but I am the King now, I can change what laws I want. And I could appoint someone to be the next in line for the throne…” Arthur looked up at Gwaine, and at his shocked expression, trailed off.

“Why do you look so confused Gwaine, you asked?”

“I was talking about legalizing magic,” Gwaine cried, “I didn’t think you’d ever have the balls to openly be with Merlin. And don’t you think you’re moving a bit fast?” He chastised.

“Ah,” Arthur responded self-consciously. “I forgot we hadn’t told you about it yet, we’ve been keeping it quiet, but I’ve already decided that I’m changing the laws surrounding magic. I plan to introduce it to the council later this week.”

They were both silent for a second when Arthur quickly added, “Do you think you can keep the marriage thing between us for now? I don’t want to scare Merlin off, so I haven’t brought it up to him yet.” Arthur fidgeted awkwardly from one foot to another.

“Well fuck me princess, you win,” Gwaine muttered, throwing his hands up in the air. “It’s not like I even really had a chance with you bounding about with your dumb face.”

“What does that mean?” Arthur asked, not sure if he should be offended or not.

“Let’s put it this way,” Gwaine put his hands on his hips, “If I ever find out that you’ve mistreated Merlin, not only will you find yourself dead, but if Merlin so desires, you will find Merlin in my bed.” He paused for a second before laughing morosely, “Huh, that rhymed, I’m a right poet I am.”

Arthur turned bright red, a mixture of embarrassment and jealousy, “Well… as long as you keep your hands off him until then we won’t have a problem.”

Gwaine shook his head, “I said you won, I’ll back off.” He paused, and with a slightly pained face continued, “And I really do hope that everything works out well for the two of you… for Merlin’s sake.”

Arthur didn’t really know what to say, and when Gwaine realized that Arthur wasn’t going to say anything else, sighed, “Well, I’m going to go back to the castle and lick my wounds.” He turned to walk away, but quickly whipped around one last time adding, “But don’t think there aren’t many of us who will be watching to make sure that you live up to Merlin’s expectations.”

Arthur nodded his head up in down in quick succession, trying to convey that he really understood. When Gwaine turned and walked away Arthur let out a breath of relief, slumping against a nearby tree.

While Gwaine was pleasantly surprised by Arthur, (he would never admit it out loud) his mission still was not done. He spotted Merlin walking back to Gaius’ chambers that night with the herbs he had fetched, and grabbed his arm, pulling Merlin into an alcove.

“Wh-what are you doing Gwaine?” Merlin asked crossly. “You just about gave me a heart attack!”

“Sorry, I just needed to talk to you about princess for a second.”

Merlin nodded, “I expected this. Honestly, I was surprised it took you this long to corner me about it.”

Gwaine with his hands, “I just want to make sure that he’s treating you right. That he didn’t pressure you into anything…”

“He’s been a perfect gentlemen Gwaine. It’s not any of your business, but we’ve done nothing but kiss,” Merlin smiled dreamily at the thought.

“I’m really happy for you,” Gwaine smiled sadly. “I’ll always be around for you if you need me. Don’t think that now that you have the princess that any of the rest of us will stop protecting you.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it _Sir Gwaine_ ,” Merlin replied cheekily. “Now if you don’t need anything else, I’ll be off. I want to get these to Gaius and then eat dinner with Arthur.”

“Go on, I’ll talk to you later,” Gwaine bade farewell.

When Merlin reached Gaius’ chambers, he quickly threw down the herbs before trying to rush out the door.

“Where are you rushing off to Merlin?” Gaius asked, before adding, “And will you be sleeping in your own bed tonight?” Merlin froze. So far, Gaius hadn’t made any comments about he and Arthur, but Merlin knew that Gaius knew.

“Arthur needs me to help him with something.”

Gaius fully turned to face Merlin, and with his famous raised eyebrow asked, “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” Merlin turned bright red and started sputtering. Gaius let him suffer for a minute, before laughing.

“Go have fun. As long as you’re safe, you can do as you please.” Continuing to stutter the entire way, Merlin backed himself out the room, waving awkwardly goodbye to Gaius. Once the door was closed behind him, he practically ran to Arthur’s room; he did _not_ want to run into anyone else who might embarrass him tonight.

Merlin rushed through Arthur’s door, across the room, and promptly faceplanted on Arthur’s bed. Slightly worried, Arthur stood up from his desk chair, and walked over to Merlin.

“Is everything alright?” Arthur asked gently as he sat down on the side of the bed, running his fingers through Merlin’s hair.

Merlin muttered something, but it was too muffled by the bedsheets for Arthur to understand.

“Do you want to try that again?” Arthur asked laughing.

Merlin rolled onto his side, “Everything is fine, except everyone seems to be very concerned about whether we’re having sex or not,” Merlin pouted.

“Gwaine?” Arthur asked exasperatedly.

“And Gaius! Gaius, Arthur,” Merlin was getting agitated now. “He didn’t say it in so many words, but he pretty much told me that as long as we’re having sex safely, he’s okay with it. Gah! Don’t mind me as I _D I E_.” Merlin turned his face so that it was back to being pressed into the sheets.

Arthur turned an interesting shade of pink. “Oh… I can see how that would be disturbing,” he said shuttering. He continued to run his fingers through Merlin’s hair in silence, before breaking it to ask Merlin if he wanted dinner.

Merlin’s stomach immediately grumbled at the thought of food. “I’ll take that as a yes,” Arthur chuckled. “Come over here, the chef sent up a lamb roast.”

Merlin dragged himself over to the table and immediately started eating. “How was your day?” Merlin asked around a mouthful of food.

“It was pretty good. Gwaine threatened to kill me on your behalf, but what else is new. I think I also finalized the speech for when I talk to the council about legalizing magic. Would you look over it once you finish eating?”

Merlin hummed in agreement. After they had both finished eating, Merlin stood up, grabbed the speech, and walked towards the bed. “Come on, after the day I’ve had, I deserve to use you as a backrest while I read through this.”

“No complaints here,” Arthur grinned, moving over to the bed himself. They settled in, Merlin sitting between Arthur’s legs, leaning back on his chest. As Merlin read, he mouthed the words as he reviewed them, and Arthur reveled in just being able to hold him.

Eventually, Merlin looked up at Arthur, “I have a few small suggestions, but it’s good. Really good actually.”

Arthur took the papers from his hands, placed them on the bedside table and wrapped his arms back around Merlin’s stomach. “I was thinking that once we legalize magic, I’ll need a court sorcerer to help me out…”

“Makes sense,” Merlin yawned.

“I think it should be you,” Arthur whispered into his ear.

Merlin was suddenly very awake. “What!?”

“You can’t actually be surprised. Who else would it be? You are the most powerful magic user ever born… and you’ve saved me dozens of times over-”

“Try hundreds,” Merlin snorted.

Arthur huffed in response. “Well, then you’ve saved me hundreds of times over; I think it’s time you finally get some recognition, and being named court sorcerer is the least I can do.”

Merlin turned around swiftly, straddling Arthur’s lap, and kissed him heatedly. It wasn’t until they both needed to breathe that they finally broke apart, gasping for air. Arthur started kissing Merlin’s neck, making the younger boy sigh in pleasure, revealing more of his neck for Arthur’s mouth to explore.

They continued to make out for the next hour; neither of them trying to rush to anything more, as they both found comfort in the warm embrace of the other.

Finally, Merlin rolled off of Arthur, and the two of them just laid on their backs, shoulders touching, as they tried to catch their breaths. After several minutes, Merlin made to sit up, and Arthur tried to pull him back down, “Come on, Merlin. Stay.”

“As much as I would like to, I’m not sure that I’ll be able to behave myself if I stay in your bed tonight Arthur, and I still don’t feel ready to have sex with you.” Merlin had a sweet, thoughtful smile on his face.

“Ugh, fine _Mer_ lin,” Arthur dramatically sighed, but as Merlin got out of bed and walked towards the door, Arthur added, “I love you though.”

“I love you too clotpole,” Merlin gave him one last smile, and then closed the door behind him.

Three days later, Arthur stood in front of the council and delivered his plan to legalize magic. When he had finished his speech, there was a split second of silence before pandemonium broke out. Every council member was shouting, most of them against Arthur’s proposal.

He let them talk over each other for several minutes, taking notice of who was in agreement and opposition to him. He needed to know who he could trust within the council, and who he should start looking for replacements for.

Finally, he stood, and speaking loudly commanded, “I have informed you all about this information as a curtesy to you, but this is not really up to debate.” At the angered faces on many of the councilmen’s faces, he placated, “I am open to suggestions on how to implement this transition, but I will be legalizing magic whether you like it or not. In the end I am the King, and I get to make the decisions on which laws are enforced. If you are not willing to help me, you are free to be relieved of your position.”

Several members of the council stood up, and left the room immediately, but Arthur knew that there were still many dissenters in the chamber. “That is all for today. We will reconvene in three days to discuss more of the details.”

Arthur and Merlin had decided to wait to reveal that Merlin would be the court sorcerer until magic was legalized, since they did not want any avoidable harm to come to him. Even as he thought about this, Arthur felt Merlin’s hand come to rest on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze of support.

“I need to go attend to some of my other duties now, but I am very proud of you Arthur,” he said quietly.

Arthur turned around, and in his best attempt at being smooth, invited Merlin to come back to his chambers to ‘celebrate’ instead.

In response, Merlin pat Arthur on the cheek and laughed. “Unfortunately not. I really do have other things I need to do today.” At Arthur’s pout, Merlin laughed again. “This is one time that your puppy dog eyes won’t get you what you want,” and he walked out of the chamber.

Arthur huffed, and strode out of the room himself, planning on going out to the practice field to get out some of his energy. He could still feel the adrenaline rushing through his body from giving the speech.

Even though he was certain that legalizing magic was the right thing to do, talking to the council had made him quite nervous, and he needed to wear some of that off if he wanted to be at all productive the rest of the day.

As he was jogging down the stairs, he turned the corner and nearly ran into Gwen. At the near collision, Gwen started to lose her balance, but Arthur caught and steadied her.

“Oh! Arthur, how are you doing? I haven’t seen you much lately.”

“I’m doing quite well actually. I’ve just finished introducing the process of legalizing magic officially to the council.”

“That’s great Arthur! I’m sure Merlin is very happy.”

“Yes, well… that actually reminds me… I should have said this to you long ago, but you have my absolute blessing to be with Lancelot. I did care for you once, but I acted ghoulishly to the two of you, and I hope you can forgive me.” Arthur said sincerely.

“I’ve known that for some time, and I have forgiven you, but it’s nice to hear you say it out loud,” she said kindly. She pushed on, “And I’m so happy for you and Merlin… he will make a good husband,” she winked.

“I told Gwaine to keep that to himself,” Arthur yelled in frustration. “How many people know?”

“Oh, only all the knights and half the staff, Sire.” At Arthur’s panicked look, Gwen chuckled, “I was joking Arthur. He only told me and Lancelot to my knowledge. But don’t wait to long to talk to Merlin about it; Gwaine can only keep his mouth shut for so long, and I don’t think Merlin will be as opposed to the idea as you seem to think.”

“You’re too good for all of us Gwen,” Arthur stated, smiling. “I won’t keep you from your tasks any longer. Talk to you later,” and the two of them walked their separate ways.

When Arthur got to the training field, he set up a dummy, and foregoing his armor, began to run drills. While he was already an accomplished fighter, doing basic drills was still very important; it kept him sharp and continued to refine his technique.

Once he had built up a good sweat, Arthur started warming down. While drills were important, they were still incredibly boring, so he packed up and went back into the castle so he could run a bath. When he was about halfway back to his chambers, he caught sight of Merlin and grabbed him, pulling him into a nearby alcove.

“Gwaine, you’ve got to stop doing this,” Merlin cried, before seeing that it was Arthur. “Oh, hey Arthur!” he said cheerily.

“Why is Gwaine pulling you into nooks?” Arthur questioned, thinking back to his previous conversation with Gwaine.

“He did it when he wanted to interrogate me about our relationship, a conversation which ended in his blessing by the way, you jealous dollophead,” Merlin rolled his eyes. 

“Oh ok,” Arthur said, before pulling Merlin into a rough kiss, nipping at his bottom lip as he pulled away.

“You’re incorrigible,” Merlin said.

“Careful, _Mer_ lin. We wouldn’t want you to get hurt using big words like that,” Arthur teased, pressing himself back into Merlin.

“Shut up… and ew, why are you so sweaty?”

“I did some training for a bit; I was actually headed back to my chambers now to take a bath. You should fetch some water, and then maybe you could join me,” Arthur leered at Merlin.

“It’s a miracle we haven’t been caught by someone; you can’t keep your damn hands to yourself.” At this rate if Merlin rolled his eyes any more, they would get stuck there Arthur thought. But he did not really mind since Merlin didn’t object as he led him towards his room.

The next month was spent trying to work through all the logistics of legalizing magic, and convincing enough council members that magic could be used for good. One night, after a frustrating day of trying to move the process forward with no luck, Merlin and Arthur lay panting on the bad after making love.

As Merlin was cleaning themselves off with an old piece of cloth, Arthur suddenly blurted out, “We should get married!”

Merlin froze and looked at Arthur shocked. Misinterpreting Merlin’s shock as rejection, Arthur tried to back pedal. “I’m sorry, I do not know where that came from. Probably just the hormones after sex speaking, don’t mind me. Forget about it.”

Merlin shook his head violently, “Don’t you dare take that back Arthur, I would love to get married, but you know it can never happen.”

“Why not,” Arthur whimpered.

“First of all, I am a man. Our relationship is illegal Arthur! And secondly, you need to have an heir; I cannot give you that. You and Gwen will get married so you can sire children, and I hope that you will still be with me when that happens, but I understand if you can’t.”

Merlin tried to turn away so that he could hide the tears welling in his eyes as he said this, but Arthur would not let him, drawing him into his arms as Merlin shook slightly in his arms.

When Merlin had calmed down, Arthur pushed him away slightly so that he could look Merlin in the eyes. “I don’t know if you’ve realized this yet, but I’m the King. I can change whatever law I want.” Seeing Merlin open his mouth, Arthur shushed him. “Let me finish Merlin. When it comes to an heir, I can just appoint someone to replace me when I’m gone. That’s within my powers. I am perfectly happy to be the end of the Pendragon line if it means being able to openly love you.”

Merlin looked at him like he was seeing Arthur in a new light. “If it is to end with you Arthur, than it will end on a high note.” Arthur smiled.

“And besides, I have given Gwen and Lancelot my full approval of their relationship. Me and Gwen haven’t been anything more than friends for a long time now.”

“I-I don’t really know what to say,” Merlin whispered. “But if you really mean it, my answer will always be yes.”

At that, Arthur pulled him into a slow, passionate kiss.

“However,” Merlin interjected, “I still think that we need to keep our relationship quiet for a while…”

“Why! I want to show everyone how much you mean to me. I want them to see you as I do,” Arthur pleaded, running his hands lightly up and down Merlin’s arms.

“Arthur, think about this rationally. If you go to the council and say, ‘in addition to legalizing magic, I’m making it legal to be gay, and also here’s my boyfriend Merlin, who just happens to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world, and he’s going to be the court sorcerer’, they’ll think I’ve bewitched you.”

Arthur sighed, “I guess you’re right…”

“You know I am. Even though you are the King, doing this would probably lead to a coup. The council members are already questioning your judgement as it is.”

They both lay in a melancholy silence, “But it’s not going to be forever Arthur. Just give it some time, and we can openly be together.” Arthur pressed their foreheads together and nodded in reluctant acceptance.

“I’m glad you said yes, Merlin. Even if people can’t know it for a while.”

“Wait a minute, don’t think that that counts as a proposal. I’m going to say yes, but you need to do better than that,” Merlin laughed.

“Of course,” Arthur responded quietly.

The day that magic was declared legal was one of the greatest days of Merlin’s life. All around him, people were once again practicing magic, and it was beautiful. Several days ago, Arthur had revealed that Merlin was going to be the Court Sorcerer to the public, and so Merlin was wearing a tailored white shirt, a rich purple cape with a bright gold lining clasped around his shoulders.

Arthur snuck up on him from behind, and whispered in his ear, “Now we just need to get you a big, pointy hat and you’ll look the part. It will match your gigantic ears”

“Shut up,” Merlin playfully shoved Arthur.

Once the festivities were over, Arthur asked Merlin if he could go fetch Arthur’s mail.

“You do know that I’m not your servant anymore right?” Merlin asked. Arthur bat his eyelashes dramatically, and Merlin sighed, “Fine. It’s a good thing I love you.”

Merlin looked around, and finding no one, slowly sidled up to Arthur, and pulled him into a gentle kiss. “Go to your chambers and I’ll meet you there in a few,” Merlin smiled.

When Merlin arrived at Arthur’s chambers with the mail, he started reading out who the letters were from to Arthur. All of a sudden, he abruptly stopped.

“Arthur… why is my mother writing to you?” Arthur turned bright red and lunged for the letter.

“It’s nothing Merlin, don’t worry about it,” he said hurriedly as he tried to pull it out of Merlin gasp. Merlin would not let go however, and started to rip open the letter. Before he could fully open it, Arthur was able to take it from him.

Merlin stood with his hands on his hips. “I swear Arthur, what are you and my mother talking about that I can’t know about.”

Arthur mumbled something under his breath. “I can’t hear you Arthur. What is it?” Merlin asked sternly, cocking his head to the side.

Arthur looked around, as if he were looking for an exit before deflating. “I asked your mother if I could marry you,” he confessed quietly, chewing his bottom lip.

Merlin’s eyes softened, and he spoke, “While I officially think that this is ridiculous, it is also incredibly sweet.” Arthur burst out in a smile, and held out his hand to Merlin. At Merlin’s confused look, he explained, “At the celebration everyone was dancing with their loved ones, and all I wanted to do was dance with you, but I couldn’t… so I was wondering if you would like to dance with me now.”

Merlin smiled tenderly and took his hand, “That sounds lovely Arthur. Just because we can’t show our love publicly yet doesn’t mean we can’t in private.”

Arthur pulled Merlin in close and put his hand on Merlin’s hip.

“Wait a minute,” Merlin gasped, “I am not the girl!”

“Of course you are Merlin.”

“No, I am not,” Merlin put his nose up in the air indignantly. “It’s your turn to be the girl,” he said as he put his hand on Arthur’s hip.

“Well… I guess just this once it would be okay,” Arthur murmured mutinously, and they slow danced together, just enjoying the company and proximity of their bodies.

And for a moment, it was as if they were the only two people in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to see one-shots of either the marriage and/or Arthur visiting Ealdor with Merlin to visit Hunith, and getting into all sorts of trouble comment down below!  
> Also if you have any suggestions/requests for fics you'd like to see drop them in the comments!

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this and/or have some constructive criticism please please please leave a comment. I need validation to live, but am also always looking to grow as a writer lol :) Thanks for reading!


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